Obama campaign pretends it never existed

On a day when the story around the blogsphere is about the scrubbing of anti-Semitic material from Obama's website come this press release by Catholic League President Bill Donohue telling us that something else is now missing.

There is no mention anywhere on the Obama website of the Catholic National Advisory Council. On Friday, we placed three phone calls to his campaign: two to media relations and one to Mark Linton, Obama's National Catholic Outreach Coordinator. We were told each time that someone would get back to us, but no one did. I then personally e-mailed Linton informing him of the three phone calls, requesting that he respond to my question: ‘I would like to know whether the Catholic National Advisory Council for Sen. Obama is still operative.' He has not replied

I suspect that his advisors may have come to see this council as a distinct liability. Not only had the notorious Father Pfleger been a member until Chicago's Cardinal George ordered him off, but advisory council membership had served as a means through which abortion opponents could draw attention to Obama's position on that issue.

For example, the Catholic League pressured Archbishop Joseph Naumann of Kansas City to rebuke Advisory Council member Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius. News stories about Catholic elected officials being warned not to come up to receive communion because of their position on abortion are not the type of coverage Obama wants as be begins to woo working class Catholic voters in states such as Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan and Minnesota.

ht Kathy Lopez at NRO's the Corner

On a day when the story around the blogsphere is about the scrubbing of anti-Semitic material from Obama's website come this press release by Catholic League President Bill Donohue telling us that something else is now missing.

There is no mention anywhere on the Obama website of the Catholic National Advisory Council. On Friday, we placed three phone calls to his campaign: two to media relations and one to Mark Linton, Obama's National Catholic Outreach Coordinator. We were told each time that someone would get back to us, but no one did. I then personally e-mailed Linton informing him of the three phone calls, requesting that he respond to my question: ‘I would like to know whether the Catholic National Advisory Council for Sen. Obama is still operative.' He has not replied

I suspect that his advisors may have come to see this council as a distinct liability. Not only had the notorious Father Pfleger been a member until Chicago's Cardinal George ordered him off, but advisory council membership had served as a means through which abortion opponents could draw attention to Obama's position on that issue.

For example, the Catholic League pressured Archbishop Joseph Naumann of Kansas City to rebuke Advisory Council member Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius. News stories about Catholic elected officials being warned not to come up to receive communion because of their position on abortion are not the type of coverage Obama wants as be begins to woo working class Catholic voters in states such as Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan and Minnesota.